Star Trek's Captain Kirk is about to boldly go where hundreds of others have gone before, continuing a decades-long tradition of space flights for non-astronauts who are wealthy or famous or well-connected — or all of the above.
In " Star Trek", the captain Kirk is about to set sail fearlessly to the place where hundreds of people have trampled and trampled, and which rich and enemy nations have continued for decades. , The traditional feat of famous people (without the background of astronauts) traveling in space.
As for ordinary folks without deep pockets — well, the final frontier might be opening up a just a bit, but opportunities still basically come down to contests and luck.
For ordinary folks without deep pockets, the final The boundaries may be slightly open, but opportunities boil down to striving and luck.
Space for the few
Actor William Shatner is back on scheduled to blast to blast off the edge of the quick Wednesday morning riding in the capsule developed by Blue Origin, the space company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos.
(U.S.) actor Williams. Charlotte plans to launch on Wednesday morning,Will take a short trip to the edge of space and return in a space capsule developed by Blue Origin. Blue Origin was founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos (Jeff Bezos).
Actor William Shatner
The 90-year-old actor, who will be the oldest person to reach space, has said he feels "terrified." Shatner's reportedly going as a guest rather than as a paying customer.
As the oldest person in space in the world, the 90-year-old actor (Williams Charlotte) felt "extremely panicked." According to media reports, Charlotte was an invited guest on space travel. Instead of self-paying customers.
"I do think it's classic marketing," says Joseph Czabovsky , an associate professor of public relations and marketing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Assistant of Public Relations and Marketing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Professor Joseph Czabovsky said: "I think this is a very classic marketing (model)."
Whenever a new product or service makes a splash, like the first Blue Origin flight did this summer, he says, companies have to figure out how to keep the public's attention.
Joseph Czabovsky said: When a new product or service turned out to cause a sensation,Just like the launch of the Blue Origin aircraft this summer, the company must find ways to attract the public’s attention."
"William Shatner makes sense in that here's a celebrity that made their claim to fame on traveling in space," says Czabovsky. "It's like a one-time, kind of kitschy branding opportunity."
Czabovsky said: "Williams Charlotte realized that traveling in space can make him a famous celebrity. This opportunity is like a one-time, Vulgar brand promotion."
But even though a celebrity like Shatner can generate headlines, says Czabovsky, this kind of marketing stunt does run the risk of reinforcing the perception that spaceflight is just for the privileged few.
Celebrities like Charlotte can also make headlines," Czabovsky said: "This kind of marketing gimmick takes great risks and deepens the (mis)conception that space travel is only for a few rich people."
After all, one seat on Blue Origin's first flight was auctioned off for $28 million. Czabovsky recently worked on a poll that found about 80% of US residents saw the recent launches as "billionaire ego trips."
After all,Each passenger (seat) of Blue Origin's maiden flight bid for up to 28 million U.S. dollars. A recent poll conducted by Czabovsky showed that about 80% of Americans regard this launch as a "billionaire self-travel."
"You have that kind of cynicism, negativity, maybe realistic understanding of what is going on," he says.
understand".
Despite that, that poll also showed that people generally felt positive about space travel's potential for humanity, says Czabovsky. It is positive and optimistic about its potential impact on mankind."
More than half said the recent private spaceflights made them believe that one day soon, ordinary people will be able to go to space.
, Ordinary people can also go to space travel."
That's long been the promise of both real-life space travel and science fiction shows like Star Trek. In the early days of the Space Age , astronauts famously had to have " The Right Stuff "; they were mostly military pilots. But the possibility of space vehicles someday becoming more like airlines didn't seem so farfetched.
for a long time,Realistic space travel is just a promise like "Star Trek" science fiction shows. In the early days of the interstellar era, famous astronauts became "space heroes"; most of them were military pilots. One day in the future, spacecraft will be more like aviation. The same possibility as the company no longer seems so unbelievable.
A brief history of ordinary folks in space
A brief history of ordinary folks flying in space began to fly in the 1980s of VIP space shuttles, when all began to fly in NASA's VIP space shuttles, as passengers, says Alan Ladwig , author of See You In Orbit? Our Dream of Spaceflight.
"Meet You in Orbit, Our Space Dream" author Alan Ladwig said: " NASA’s When space shuttle began to fly in 1980, a variety of VIPs began to lobby to become passengers of space travel."
A task force ultimately decided that flying a non-astronaut would be OK for NASA to do, for public education purposes. That's why, in 1984, President Ronald Reagan said he was directing NASA "to chose as the first passenger citizen in the history of our space program, one of America's finest: a teacher."
For the purpose of public education,The Space Task Force finally decided that NASA can allow people who are not astronauts to fly into space. This is why President Ronald Reagan in 1984 instructed NASA to select the first passenger in the history of the US space program and the most outstanding representative of the United States. One: teachers.
Ladwig, who managed NASA's program for citizens in space, remembers going on Late Night with David Letterman to talk about it. "I said the first spaceflight participant program would be the teacher," he recalls.
Ladwig Ladwig is responsible for managing NASA's Space Citizenship Program. He clearly remembers discussing this with David Letterman in the middle of the night. "I said that the participant in the first space flight program was a teacher," he recalled.
The very next day, however, he was stunned to see a newspaper report that Senator Jake Garn, who chaired the committee that oversaw NASA's budget, would be flying in space.
It was discovered that Jake Garn, the Senate responsible for overseeing NASA’s budget, will execute the space flight plan.
NASA ultimately flew not just Garn, but also another member of Congress, Bill Nelson , who is now the head of NASA. Both went up before the 1986 space shuttle Challenger disaster, which killed the whole crew, including teacher Christa McAuliffe . She had participated in a nationwide contest to select the first teacher and had received widespread publicity; millions of Americans watched the tragic explosion.
NASA finally (executive space flight planner) not only Senate Jake Garn,There is also another member of the council, Bill Nelson, currently the head of NASA. Both of them landed in space before the Challenger space shuttle disaster in 1986. The disaster caused all the crew members to die, including Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher selected nationwide, received widespread publicity at the time, and millions of Americans witnessed the explosion.
"There was some criticism out of Congress, some media, that, well, this just shows space is too dangerous for an ordinary citizen," recalls Ladwig, who says NASA canceled plans to fly a journalist in space.
"Parliament And some news media criticized that the incident showed that the space flight citizenship program was too dangerous for ordinary people," Ladwig recalled, adding that NASA cancelled a reporter's space flight program.
After that, NASA only flew professional astronauts, with the exception of John Glenn , a former astronaut and the first American to ever orbit the Earth. When Glenn said he wanted to fly again at the age of 77, NASA gave the go-ahead.
Since then (the Challenger incident), NASA only allowed professional astronauts to fly in space, except for the first former American astronaut to orbit the earth John Glenn ,When the 77-year-old Glenn again wanted to fly in space, NASA agreed.
"The media turned out in droves for that mission, the public loved it," says Ladwig, noting that Glenn was a national hero.
For this task, the public is eager to fight for this task. Glenn has become the national hero ".
For people who weren't astronauts or national heroes, the only way to get to space, for years, was paying millions of dollars to Russia.
The way to get into space is to pay Russia millions of dollars.
The Russian space agency has sold trips to orbiting space stations to a TV journalist from Japan, a bunch of businessmen turned space tourists, and just last week, an actress and movie director.
Station trip to a Japanese radio reporter, a group of wealthy businessmen,Transformed into a space tourist, just last week, an actress and film director (into space travel).
Space tourism takes off
Space tourism (industry) will take off
Now, though, Russia has offer up-and-back from US companies. Virgin Gaunt-and-back both that have a few minutes of weightlessness. And Space X has a capsule that can orbit the planet for days.
Although Russia is currently facing competition from American companies, Virgin Galactic (Virgin Galactic) and Blue Origin (Blue Origin) only provides short-distance trips under short-term weightlessness, but Space X provides a sky warehouse (travel) that can orbit the earth for several days.
This year, flights operated by these firms have taken a motley assortment of people to space — what Saturday Night Live recently called "random weirdos" in a skit that parodied both Star Trek and rich space entrepreneurs.
this year These companies operate routes to send people to space travel,The recent Saturday night show imitated the performances of "Star Trek" and the wealthy space businessmen called "random weirdos".
Just a couple of days later, Blue Origin announced that it was taking up Shatner.
Just a couple of days later, Blue Origin announced that it was taking up Shatner.
The SpaceX flight in September that made history by having no professional astronauts on board was bankrolled by a billionaire Jared Isaacman. But he offered up three seats to support St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, which allowed a physician assistant from the hospital to go, as well as a community college professor who won a contest and a data engineer whose friend won a fundraising sweepstakes.
In September this year, SpaceX created the history of non-professional astronaut flight, this mission Funded by billionaire Jared Isaacman, he provided three seats to support an assistant physician from the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis , , a university professor who won a community competition, and a data engineer, he 'S friend became the lucky winner of the fundraising raffle.
One nonprofit, called Space For Humanity, is trying to raise money to sponsor space trips for people from all over the world who might otherwise never be able to afford them.
For-profit organizations try to raise funds to provide funding for space travel to people all over the world, otherwise they may not be able to afford it (the cost of space travel).
"We are now at this cusp of a new era in space exploration, where more and more people are going to have access to this experience," say Rachel Lyons, executive director of the group, who says seeing the Earth from space can have a transformative effect. "We believe that it's our responsibility to use this advancement in technology for the good of all."
Rachel Lyons, executive director of the organization, said: "We are now in At the watershed of a new era of space exploration, more and more people will have this experience." Looking at the earth from space will have a transformative effect. "We believe that it is our responsibility to use this technological advancement to benefit everyone.
She says right now, space is just "not accessible to 99.99% of humanity," and that about 4,000 people from over 100 countries have applied to their program.
She said: "At present, "99.99% of human beings cannot enter space",Approximately 4,000 people from more than 100 countries have applied to join their project".
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